Friday, September 28, 2012

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Love For the Rockabilly Fillies

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New MexicanSept. 28, 2012
One of the most exciting CDs I’ve been listening to in recent weeks is The Blanco Sessions, the posthumously released, should-have-been-a-comeback album for rockabilly fireball Janis Martin. It’s an upbeat, generally happy CD, and yet there’s a sad story
behind it.

Martin died of lung cancer in 2007, just a few months after
she finished recording the album. It was the final raw deal for a woman
whose career was full of raw deals. (It’s also a raw deal that it took
five years to find a record company to release the album, but that’s
another story.)

I’d like to be the first writer to do a piece on
Martin without referring to the fact that in the 1950s her record
company marketed her as “the Female Elvis.”

I guess I blew that.

That "female Elvis" bunk doesn’t do justice to Martin. It makes her sound like
some kind of novelty act. She wasn’t.

True, the Virginia native (who
signed to RCA Records in 1956. just months after Elvis did), was an
early female practitioner — and one of very few — of rockabilly in her day. And
she did have a song called “My Boy Elvis.” But she was very much her
own person — an artist with a strong, confident voice.

Janis Martin in the '50s

A dynamic,
vivacious performer with a natural rockabilly spunkiness, Martin might
have achieved a long and productive career as a singer.

But at the age
of 16 (15 by some accounts), she secretly married her boyfriend. And by
the age of 17, after she got pregnant, she could no longer keep it a
secret. RCA couldn't handle the potential scandal (remember, this was
the late ’50s), so the company dropped the pregnant teenage rockabilly. It’s strange, but one of the first songs she recorded for RCA was one
called “Let’s Elope Baby.”

An overly cautious and conservative
record label was her first professional roadblock. Her second was her
second husband, who hated being on the road so much in the early ’60s he
gave Martin an ultimatum — your music career or your marriage. She
chose the marriage and put a lid on the music for the rest of the time
she was married to him — 13 years.

This album, lovingly produced
by modern rockabilly singer and longtime Martin fan Rosie Flores, is
something of an unintentional farewell letter from Martin. It wasn't the
first time the two worked together. Martin contributed her vocals on a
couple of songs on 1995’s Rockabilly Filly (Flores’ best album) — as did fellow rockabilly matriarch Wanda Jackson.

Rosie & Janis

When Martin and Flores worked on The Blanco Sessions
— recorded in April 2007 in Blanco, Texas — Martin had not yet been
diagnosed with cancer. The illness certainly didn’t show in her voice,
which sounded just as powerful as, though more mature and somewhat
husker, than it did in her girlhood days.

Flores
made no noticeable effort to modernize or force her own stamp on
Martin’s basic sound, as producer Jack White did on Jackson’s recent
album The Party Ain’t Over. There are no Amy Winehouse songs
and no fancy studio tricks here. Flores just gathered a handful of
capable Texas musicians and let the music rip, with Martin clearly out
front.

The songs include a couple of tunes associated with Jerry Lee Lewis. There’s “Wild One (Real Wild Child),” originally recorded by Aussiebilly Johnny O’Keefe. But even better is “It’ll Be Me,” a classic, if under- appreciated, Jerry Lee B-side written by
Cowboy Jack Clement. Martin delivers with fire.

She also performs some
lesser-known rockabilly and neo-rockabilly tunes like “I Believe What
You Say” (a minor hit for Ricky Nelson written by Johnny and Dorsey
Burnette); “Find Out What’s Happening,” an Elvis song from the early
’70s; Ronnie Dawson’s “Wham Bam Jam”; and The Blasters’ 1983 ode to Hank
Williams, “Long White Cadillac.”

Like most of her peers,
beginning in her teen years, Martin was a fan of rhythm and blues. She
kicks off this album with a billyed-up version of a Ruth Brown song “As
Long as I’m Movin’.” She also covers “Roll Around Rockin’,” a lusty
blues song by Carolina Beach Music master Billy Scott.

Martin’s
roots are in country music, however. In the 50s, she toured with the
likes of Hank Snow, Jim Reeves, and Faron Young. Among the country songs
here are a soulful take on Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams.” It doesn’t
quite match the intensity of Cline’s classic original, but it’s a worthy
try.

On the other hand, I’d match Martin’s upbeat, rocking take on Don
Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me” against any version of that much-covered tune.
(Let’s start a needless argument: the worst version of “Oh Lonesome Me”
is Neil Young’s dreary take on his After the Gold Rush album. Talk among yourselves.)

In interviews, Flores has said that she believes Martin realized this
would be her last album. It’s a fitting goodbye from a rock pioneer,
rocking until the very end.Also recommended:

* Working Girl’s GuitarbyRosie Flores. On the heels of The Blanco Sessions finally
seeing the light of day, Flores will be releasing her latest album
(coming Oct. 16), which as always is full of delights.

Although she has
helped carry the rockabilly torch — and this work features a bang-up
version of “Drugstore Rock ‘n’ Roll,” an early hit for Janis Martin, and
a fresh take on Elvis’ “Too Much” — Working Girl’s Guitar isn’t a pure rockabilly album. Most of the CD is good basic roots rock, and it includes a tasty instrumental, “Surf Demon #5.”

One
of the highlights here is Flores’ duet with former teen idol Bobby Vee
(you read that right — Bobby Vee!); it’s a sweet ’50’s-style ballad
called “Love Must Have Passed Me By.”

Another cool surprise is Flores’ arrangement of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” She does it jazzy, with a stand-up bass and soft acoustic guitar solos,
subtly showing off her chops on the instrument.

Big Enchilada Souvenirs

Just So Ya Know ...

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